Moving 10 kilometers of cables and pipes

Next to and under the bridges and viaducts of the existing A9 between Badhoevedorp and Holendrecht lies a large number of cables and pipes. To keep these accessible even after the widening, they must be relocated. As Liander's house contractor, Van Baarsen Buisleidingen was called in at an early stage. Not much later, PWN, Waternet and Stedin also raised the alarm, so that work-with-work could be done very efficiently.

Van Baarsen Pipelines is actually the odd man out within the project. "True, the request to relocate the cables and pipelines came from construction consortium VeenIX, but we are working on behalf of Liander to relocate the signal, medium and low voltage cables," explains René van der Sluis, process manager at Van Baarsen Buisleidingen. "During the project, PWN, Waternet and Stedin were also added as clients to move parts of pipes. After all, the trench was open anyway." 

Construction Team

With construction consortium VeenIX, Van Baarsen Buisleidingen has created a construction team. "A meeting takes place every two weeks to discuss progress and planning. Because the planning is quite subject to change, as we have noticed over the past two years that we have been active on the project," says Van der Sluis. Matthijs Cappendijk, project coordinator at Van Baarsen Buisleidingen, adds: "The flexible planning has mainly to do with the fact that the project is not cast in concrete. There is no DO or UO underlying it. It is up to us to constantly anticipate changes, but we have been entrusted with that. At Van Baarsen, René and I are the point of contact for the entire process from A to Z: from calculation and preparation to engineering, permit application, planning and execution. That allows us to move quickly."

Guided drilling

Van Baarsen Pipelines continuously switches locations on the route from Badhoevedorp to Holendrecht. "We follow the contractor's schedule and always move short sections," says Cappendijk. "By now we have already moved about 10 kilometers of cables and pipes, all in phases. The re-routed route is then connected to the existing section each time. And so we move 'randomly' around the project. One route takes a week, the other several months, so that also varies." Van der Sluis: "We also made a total of about twenty directional drillings under the A9. So all in all quite an extensive project for us with a long duration of more than two years now. We are now working toward the end, though. Most of the cables and pipes are in the new situation. We will still be active on the project until the end of this year, although no longer continuously. And in total we have been involved for about three years, usually with one or two teams, but at peak times also with three or four teams. All in all, another great reference for us."